 The number of Americans had more than doubled, but that season is notable for the first appearance on the New Zealand coast of large numbers of French whaleships.A single French ship, the "Mississippi", had worked from Cloudy Bay in 1836, but in 1838 she returned as one of a fleet of 16 French whaleships.Among these was the "Cachalot", commanded by Jean Langlois, whose land purchase from the Māori led to the French attempt to establish a Colony at Akaroa in 1840.